Nikki Merkerson is a Community Development and home ownership expert. She is a real estate investor, advocating for and empowering others to make smart investments.

Nikki is passionate about making wealth-building opportunities attainable. She is the founder of Urban Leisure, a co-living space based out of Brooklyn, New York. Coliving is one of the best and most direct means to achieve optimal density and affordable housing in the modern urban context.

Nikki is also the founder of Pairgap, an innovative web platform that matches ideal partners to one another with the intent of buying property together. The platform makes home ownership both accessible and affordable. Nikki strongly believes that by leveraging today’s shared economy and matching potential buyers to one another, more people will have the opportunity to build wealth through homeownership.

Prior to pursuing her entrepreneurship ventures full-time, Nikki spent 23 years in the financial services industry. She most recently held the role of a Community Reinvestment Officer at JP Morgan Chase covering the Northeast markets and was responsible for building long term relationships supporting key community stakeholders and assisting low and moderate income individuals with greater economic opportunity. In her former role, Nikki also provided home ownership opportunities through the facilitation of educational seminars which included Money Management, Understanding Credit and Affordable Mortgage products and programs. Prior to JP Morgan, Nikki served as a Loan Officer for 15 years at various financial institutions.

Born and raised in Queens, New York, Nikki is a proud mother of two college students.